Monday, 1 August 2016

The retractable football pitch at the new White Hart Lane will not completely exit the stadium when retracted, which is a change in design from most other stadiums with retractable pitches. It is not possible at Spurs due to space constraints around the stadium.

At the new White Hart Lane, the retracted pitch will always be under one of the stands, so instead of using traditional methods a new solution had to be found.

At Tottenham, when the pitch is retracted it will split into three and rest partially under the elevated plaza outside the stadium and partially under one of the stands.

What happens in most designs using retractable fields is that they have one stand supported by telescopic hydraulic posts. These rest on pile caps when the field is inside the stadium and retract when the field is moving under the empty stand. It is then re-extended onto the pile caps when the field is outside of the stadium.

This method wasn't possible at White Hart Lane so the devised solution is when the field is to be retracted it splits into three sections. These are then slid between two rows of permanent columns that support the load of the lightweight single tier South Stand above.

I'm indebted to members of Skyscraper City for the details of the differences between our solution and the traditional solution.